Firepower in reserve

Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) Football Club is located in North London. The club is also known as Spurs. Tottenham's home ground is White Hart Lane. The club motto is Audere est Facere (To dare is to do).

Chris Hughton was happy to wax lyrical about the young striking talent bubbling under first team level after Lee Barnard and Jamie Slabber's respective performances for the reserves this week.

'Barney', 19, maintained his fine form of late with a double in the 3-0 win against Ipswich Town while 'Slabs', still just 18, returned from a recent foot problem to bag the other.

It was certainly an eventful night for Lee. He peppered the Ipswich goal throughout, scored an excellent first goal, flicked home the second and was left sporting a black eye at Spurs Lodge on Tuesday after a late clash.

He has been in senior squads for recent matches against Manchester City and Wolves and won't have harmed his cause this week - especially under the watchful eye of first team coach Chris Hughton, in charge of the reserves on Monday.

"Lee has made good progress," enthused Chris afterwards. "His first touch has improved very much.

"We always knew he had that physical presence about him and for someone who isn't a giant of a lad, he's certainly has no fear when it comes to that side of the game. He is a handful.

"His first goal was an excellent goal. It was a real striker's goal, control, good touch and finish. His overall contribution was excellent."

It's been a bit of a stop-start season for Jamie after his whirlwind rise to the first team and a Premiership appearance (and assist v Liverpool) last term.

A toe injury had kept him sidelined of late but he returned to the reserve stage with a late header at Stevenage Borough.

"It's the best Jamie's been for a while," said Chris. "We've perhaps been a little critical of him in the last couple of months, he's had a couple of injuries but we were looking for him to make progress over this season and he did well."